Violence In Cinema!

As a modern audience WE LOVE VIOLENCE, we see it everywhere films, books, tv, comics, video games, even board games!

But how far is too far?

Well, the first really violent films appeared in the 1900s, films like 'The Great Train Robbery' helped bring killing to the big screen, but the way it was done then was lets say slightly romanticised compared to the gritty and visceral violence we seen on todays screen. In some cases its even laughable in comparison!

So steadily since then violence in films has been getting more dirty, more realistic and more brutal, right up to now where we see entire legions of men decapitated and massacred right in front of our eyes!

Take the film, bourne identity for example, pretty recent, I think it contains the most visceral, 'realistic' fight scene of any film ive ever seen..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhp7liywOrQ&feature=related

and you can see how much people love this kind of stuff, the name of that video is "Best Fight Scene Ever" < kind of worrying.

and that fight scene wasnt even that bad.

Whilst doing my research I came across countless videos of people reenacting fight scenes and compiling their favourite violent scenes, and even compiling their favourite real life fights?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUlQD4P2ZAI

It's mental, people really get off on this stuff. We all love a good scrap.

So its no surprise violent films and games etc have been blamed for the state of youth today. And its something that gets on my tits, because I love violent video games and movies and stuff, and I hate it when people blame them for some kids going AWAL with a baseball bat at their local off license.

...but honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if they were to blame.

See from my own personal experience, I can tell you hundreds of guns and their uses, I know how to kill someone in a couple of moves and I'm so desensitised to violence nothing in cinema shocks me anymore. The real world is a different matter, but we'll get onto that later.

What im trying to say is if ive never fired a gun, but I know how to use one and indeed know the different models and types because ive seen them in video games or films then surely most males my age do, and its not gonna be long before someone with serious issues uses this knowledge for bad things. Its happened before.

The Columbine shootings in america have gone down as one of the worst massacres of all time, two nut jobs (to be quite frank) went on a killing spree and murdered 12 students, injuring another 21. In the diaries of the killers they confessed to loving the video games Doom and Wolfnstine 3D and the film Natural Born Killers.

Obviously then this kick started the raging argument about video games and movies teaching violence to youth, censorship became more of a force and video games such as "Manhunt 2"

So violence in the media has become a massive topic in modern times, censors now censor more than ever, but films still keep pushing the boundries, take "A Serbian"
film for instance which features violent depictions of rape, murder and necrophilia, that came out fairly recently and caused a bit of a media storm, it was heavily censored.

But then there is the argument of free speech, is it right to cut these scenes out of films to protect the public, or are we becoming to much of a nanny state. Indeed sites like "Wikileaks" which reveal monstrosity after monstrosity caused by American troops in Afghanistan show us REAL violence everyday in an effort to show us the truth. So is censoring films and games stilling someones efforts to make us aware of the very real violence out in the real world?

In my opinion, there will always be two sides to this story, free speech and the ability to express yourself is important, but exhibiting gratuitous violence that has no point other than to shock is not needed. I think the censors need to find a middle ground, maybe make it harder for under 18s to acquire 18 rated films, that sort of things.

Is violent media responsible for events such as columbine?

No.

I dont think so, not souly, I think there has to be something wrong with you in the first place to do that sorta thing, I love Doom, Halo and COD and whatever, and I dont feel the need to shot someone in real life. Because video games arent real. Real life is, and killing is naughty in real life. But it makes you think, if people that could do these things are getting hold of this violent media and playing it, with a warped version of whats reality and what isnt, well that cant be good...